Hui Laulima O Hana, are the many hands working together for the people of Hana. A 501 (c)(3) Non profit organization in Hana, Maui, Hawaii, and is duly registered with the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Our Hui consist of residents who volunteers their time and services with no compensation, and is dedicated and committed to support and improve the quality of life of loved ones living in the isolated and remote Hawaiian Communities of Hana, Maui, by providing charitable dialysis treatments and a variety of support services.
Hui Laulima O Hana's Kuleana (responsibility), is based on the belief that all people should be treated fairly, and with aloha, and that their needs are of the utmost importance. Our entire Hui, is committed to meeting those needs. As a result, Governor Linda Lingle, The Governor's Maui Advisory Council, Department of Land and Natural Resources,The Maui County, Council and Staff, Liberty Dialysis, Medicare (CMS), Agencies and people from and outside of Hawaii, have strongly supported and approved the people of Hana on Oct. 16, 2008, to receive dialysis treatments in a communal home setting. A first in the nation, that will become a model to other isolated and rural communities like Hana.
Hui Laulima O Hana:
President & Hawaiian Cultural Expertise: Lehua Cosma
Vice President & Medical Expertise: Loly Soler-Bergau
Treasure& Financial Expertise: Newton Pescaia
Secretary& Hana Resident: Tony Angelini
Corresponding Secretary & Vocational Expertise: John Blumer-
Buell
The Advisory Committee:
Dr. Paul Kaiwi
Kathleen S
Sheila Agnitsch
Claudia Kalaola: Grant Writer
Antoinette Troxell: CPA
Hale Pomaika'i Health Aides
Noela Oliveira
Kanoe Sinenci
Volunteers:
Thrift Shop Manager: Vivian Kamai
Lorna Ogata
Lynette Kuoha
Melissa
Myrna Costello
Kenneth Moiha
Na Kia'i O Ke Kula O Hana ( Pat Cosma Sr. Honey Boy Cosma, Mark Keaulana, Craig Castaneda, Francis Oliveira)
Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike
Moke Bergau
Uncle Mel Castaneda
Dan from Waikaloa
Our Background:
Founded in April of 2004, Hui Laulima
O Hana, a
grassroots group supporting a dire need of bringing dialysis treatments home to Hana, aiming to end the grueling trips to and from Hana, on a
single two-lane, winding road is the 4-5 hours (round trip) commute on
the Hana Highway, with 700+ turns, 1000-ft. cliffs and 54 single lane
bridges driven to the nearest dialysis treatment center in Central
Maui.
Hana is famously known for "Heavenly Hana", the last
Hawaiian place, isolated and separated from the rest of the islands,
where many from around the world come to visit and experience the true
beauty of its sacred place and people.Hana
has one of the poorest health profiles in Hawai'i and is federally
designated as a medically under-served community. Hawaii has a higher
incidence and prevalence rate of patients with end stage renal disease
(ESRD) on kidney dialysis when compared with the national average.
Almost 60/% of patients receiving kidney dialysis for ESRD have a
primary diagnosis of diabetes. It is estimated that 72,000 to 100,000
people currently have diabetes in Hawaii, of which 25,000 or more
people remain undiagnosed.
Statistic's at Hui Laulima O Hana's first dialysis community meeting in May of 2004, shared information of 120 plus residents, included children of Hana living with
diabetes or high blood pressure, are potential candidates to dialysis. These numbers have grown
since then. There has been more than 10 dialysis patients who passed away within a 12 years time, some of them simply gave up, the grueling dialysis trips, financial hardship, and separation from their loved ones back
home, was way too much to bare, taking its final toll.
Our recent loss was, "Auntie Rosalind
Moiha, a dearly beloved Kupuna, Mother, Sister, Auntie and Friend, who
passed away peacefully at her home on June 9, 2008. Auntie could no longer take the long trips to dialysis anymore, her body was too fragile and weak. Her last wish of "enough already" was supported by her children, who could not see their mother suffer anymore than she already has. Many gathered around Auntie's bedside saying prayers and bidding their final aloha.
For the 1, 855 population of Hana ( from 2000 data
center) having 1 to 5 patients in dire need of dialysis, is far beyond
a great need, aspiring the Hui to persevere and work diligently towards
enhancing the quality of lives, and not just numbers, some considered too
few. The Hui is committed to support each breath of life, providing the
highest level of care within their own community of Hana, their home, nurtured
by ohana (family) and friends, is the traditional way of healing.
*Dialysis & Hana news from the past............
No.579
April 29, 2009
‘No’ is not an Option
Lehua
Cosma's successful crusade to create the nation's first-ever communal
home for dialysis patients in her isolated Hawaii community was
inspired by her diabetic mother.
"She never gave up," Cecilia
Park, 67, said of her daughter's unrelenting campaign to create a
national model for future dialysis centers in rural areas far from
centralized treatment centers.
Just in time for Mother's Day,
Mrs. Park's thrice-weekly, four-hour roundtrips along a serpentine,
cliff-hugging road from Hana to the other side of Maui for life-saving
medical services finally have ended.
Thanks
to Cosma and a committed corps of national, state and county
bureaucrats, as well as community volunteers, Mrs. Park and other
dialysis patients are just a few minutes away from a remodeled vintage
house where four specially trained local women staff three comfortable
treatment rooms.
Cosma's was a classic "you can't fight City
Hall" battle -- except she also took on the "we've never done it this
way before" nay sayers at Medicare, Medicaid, the state of Hawaii and
Maui County and her hometown's private, nonprofit health clinic, which
had other health priorities.
"Lehua isn't scared of anybody,"
Mrs. Park said. "When I had my heart attack six years ago, I started
needing dialysis three times a week. My husband, Andrew, retired early
so he could drive me. We'd get up at 2 a.m. and start out in the dark,
hoping we could make it, sometimes through big storms and mudslides.
"We
carried rope and a chainsaw to get fallen trees off the road and were
always worried we would be late for my appointment, because that meant
we'd have to go to the end of the line."
Their monthly
gasoline bill often topped $1,000, Mrs. Park was always exhausted, and
her husband always anxious about getting them there and back safely.
Cosma
credits a grassroots movement started by dialysis patients "who were
too tired and burned out from the long trips for help," including 10
now deceased, with spurring her to action after her mother became one
of those patients.
Encouraged by Dr. Steven Moser, a Maui
nephrologist who died of a heart attack halfway through her campaign,
Cosma founded the group "Hui Laulima O Hana," which translates from
Hawaiian into English as "the many hands of Hana working together."
Board member
and local farmer Guy Lay recruited allies in the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Native Hawaiian Health Care Systems.
According to a 2004 state Health Department study, type II diabetes has a faster progression in Native Hawaiians
than in any other ethnic group in the state. Hawaiians are also more
likely to die of diabetes-related complications, such as heart attack
or stroke.
More than 67 percent of Hana's population is Native
Hawaiian, including Mrs. Park and Francis "Blue" Lono, the other Hana
patient currently receiving dialysis in the new facility.
Cosma
and her six siblings were raised by Andrew and Cece Park to "work hard
and always think of others," her mother said. "When this happened to
me, she went all out."
It's a lifelong pattern with Cosma. The
Hana School custodian always has a fresh flower tucked behind her ear
and a kind word for every child as she works with her husband Patrick
to keep the 20-acre campus a landscaped prizewinner. The mother of four
grown children, she's an expert multitasker who also catches
record-setting fish, organizes an annual college scholarship fundraiser
and is president of the dialysis home's parent nonprofit organization.
Cosma
and her team knocked down every roadblock thrown in their convoluted
path through countless public presentations and heart-felt pleas backed
by solid research. Hui Laulima O Hana now leases the communal home from
the state for $1 annually, and "we're paid up for 20 years," she
laughed.
"When I was small, I was shy, but when you focus on
other people, that helps," she added. "I was also born stubborn, so I
never take no for an answer. If something's not right, I have to try
and make it right.
"I did this for my community, and to not only help extend my mother's life, but to give her more quality of life."
Now that her mission is accomplished, how will Cosma
put more quality into her life?
"I'm going fishing!"
Log on to www.tadbartimus.com
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© 2008 by The Women Syndicate
